Marking stamp or die



(No Model.)

W. WELLS.

MARKING STAMP OR DIE. No. 552,800. Patented Jan. '7, 1896.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

IVILFRED \VELLS, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA.

MARKING STAMP OR DIE! SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 552,800, dated January 7, 1896.

Application filed October 4, 1895. Serial No. 564,652. (No model.)

ployed for printing upon knit goods and other textile fabrics, the object of my invention being to produce for this purpose a stamp which is practically indestructible as long as properly handled and which will insure a full and clear imprint upon the goods. This object I attain in the manner hereinafter set forth, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective View of a printingstamp constructed in accordance with my invention, and Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same.

A stamp such as that to which my invention relates consists of metal plates or strips a bent, shaped, or combined to form the desired letters or other characters and secured in a backing b, the plates being usually made of brass and the backing of wood, into which the plates are driven, although a few stamps have, prior to my invention, been made with a backing of lead cast around the metal plates forming the letters.

I have discovered by experiment that the metallic alloy known as phosphor-bronze possesses qualities which render it particu- I find that phosphor-bronze alloy will retain the ink or printing composition used in the special class of work for which these stamps are intended much better than brass or other metal, and hence a stamp made in accordance with my invention gives a fuller and clearer imprint than stamps heretofore used, and the metal, while extremely tough, possesses a certain amount of resiliency, and hence the letters are not so liable to be distorted as when the metal strips are of soft metal, nor so liable to be broken as when said strips are hard and brittle. I

The Babbitt-metal alloy seems to have such an affinity for the phosphor-bronze that when abacking of this metal is cast upon the bronze strips constituting the letters or characters it adheres to the same with such tenacity that the loosening or removal of any of the strips from the backing is practically impossible, thus overcoming a serious objection to stamps in which the backing is composed of wood or lead.

Having thus described my invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent- A printing die or stamp consisting of letters or characters formed of strips of phosphor bronze, and a backing of Babbitt metal cast onto"said strips, substantially as specified.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses;

WILFRED WELLS.

Witnesses I WILL. A. BARR, J os. H. KLEIN. 

